Lumos
by Kirra kills
Summary: "you need only to turn on the light" Xenophilious Lovegood remembers bits of his childhood, and has a midnight chat with a drunk James on the future


"Mum? Mum? Mum, what if I don't want to go?" spindly fingers clutched at a gray skirt, mum, I don't want to go down _there_." Old shoes too big for the wearer dug their heels into the gray earth. "Mum, can't Sandy give Da his lunch? I don't want to-" Here a worn brown hand gave the speaker a good smack on the head. "Hush, my Xeno. You're father wants to see you today, and Sandy has his own work to do, he don't have the time to give yer father his lunch in the mines! Now, go and remind the old man down there not to leave the lunch on the counter, or I swear his slippers are turning into tomorrow's beef stew." The little boy giggled at his mother's words, but still looked worriedly at the opening to the mines, and the elevator shaft leading down, down, down. He clutched onto his mother's skirt more tightly, unwilling to let go.

"Gryffendors migh' be known for their bravery, but they don't hold a candle to the miners and your Da, and he's a Ravenclaw, tested and true" Arianne Lovegood whispered in her son's ear, knowing what made him scared. "Every time a man braves the pit, he's that much braver than any Gryffendor." Slowly the thin hand let go of her skirts, and Arianne watched her son head stoutly to the elevator, climb in, next to the afternoon timers, and start down.

Plummeting, fast, fast, faster, fastest of all, there was nothing, it seemed, to keep the miners from crashing to their dooms. Sometimes, the men joked that you left your stomach up around the shaft opening, and collected it when you came back up, just in time for your mam's or wife's stew or hash. Or, if you got really lucky, fish and chips. Xenophilious stared up at the dwindling speck of light, the way out, as they went deeper and deeper. Finally, the elevator shuddered to a wheezy stop, and the rusty gates creaked open. Xeno picked up a lantern by the entrance to the main shaft, and lit it, while soft mutterings of "lumos" came around him. The lanterns were for him and the other children, too young for magic; this was one of the few mining communities that was mostly wizarding families, not that Xenophilious Lovegood knew the difference then.

Quietly as he could, he scuffed through the shaft, mutterings of "there's Silky, the living Silky" filling the air around him. The old miners claimed there were spirits, of past miners and boys, and one of them was Silky, pale as the moon, running to who knows where, beckoning you to follow, if only you would. They'd leave things out for him, too. Whenever Xeno came down, which wasn't often, he always saw tin dishes of milk and cornbread with bacon, an offering of sorts to the little spirit people claimed he resembled so.

Finally, the small boy found his father, at the far end of his usual shaft, digging and hacking away, piles of coal neatly around him, the Transfigured canaries swooping and hovering around Aderyn Lovegood's head. "Da? Mum says if you forget yer lunch on the counter again, she'll turn your slippers into tomorrow's beef stew." The older man turned, his face breaking into a grin. "Will she now? I'd love to see that, those old slippers must have had every spell cast on them your dear mam can think of, and still no dice!" Aderyn swooped down, tickling his son, his little Xenophilious, then sobering, sitting down and picking up the paper sack the boy had dropped in the tickle attack. "now, speaking of your dear mam, what delicacies has she made us today, hm?"

Happily, father and son settled down on the rocky ground. Like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat, Aderyn slowly pulled the food out of the paper bag. With a flourish, he revealed cornbread and hash, sodden with soaked up grease and gravy. Xenophilious gasped in delight; he only go to see anything of this sort on his birthday. His father chuckled. "and she treats me for our anniversary. Glad I remembered last night and got your dear mum, a rose, eh, Xen my boy?" his bony child nodded. Aderyn looked at his only son, with a trace of sadness. Xeno, like his father, grew too quickly, long and narrow, looking half-starved, wearing beaten and battered clothing, threadbare in places. If only, Adenrn, sometimes wished, he'd made a different choice, took a different path, but a Time keeper let you go back only so far.

Aderyn split his lunch, handing the larger piece to Xenophilious. "r-really, da?" the kid looked at the sopping cornbread in his hand, as if it were a dream he hardly dared see were real. "course really, silly boy! You're a growing lad, need to keep up your energy, don't ya?" Xeno smiled and began eating without much more prompting from his father. "Da, tell me about the creatures again? The ones no-one believes in?" suddenly, the light went out, darkness drowning out Aderyn's chuckled words, and the screaming began.

"_LUMOS_!"

"ARG! GARDAMIT, LOVEGOOD!"

Xeno looked around, trembling, his wand held high, the tip illuminating…the Ravenclaw dormrooms, same as they always were, now with tussled sleepy, angry faces of his roommates poking out of their beds. "what was it this time, Lovegood? Mucas eating pixies, or dreamstealing birds with lizard tales?" Xeno relaxed from the kneeling position on his bed, smoothing his hear back, collecting himself. "no, Fletcher, it was kniffles, they cloud your thoughts, make you stupid. With OWLs in a week, we can't have that, can we?" dissatisfied grumbles erupted around the room, but most of the boys went back to bed, used to Lovegood's preposterous stories and claims. They all knew it was really nightmares, the screams woke them up long before the spell ever did, but no-one said anything, it was Lovegood's business, not theirs. "One a these days, Lovegood, one a these days I'm gonna figure out what goes on in that git-brained head of yours" a few might mutter, but it was never serious.

"I'm going to the Banquet Hall, friends" said Xeno, and swung out of his bed, arms prickling, coldsweat drying on contact to the night air. He reached under his bed, grabbing an old leather bound book, before descending the stairs and exiting the dorm rooms. Carefully, he bypassed the halls he thought he heard Peeves moving around in, and made it to the Banquet Hall none the wiser.

Unfortunately, he wasn't alone. A sleepy and apparently drunk Potter was sitting on one of the benches, singing a nonsense song. Xeno dropped his book on the table, the loud noise making the other boy jump. Potter squinted, then grinned. "ey, if it ain't Nutter!" Xeno smiled, concealing the annoyance at the nickname he'd been haunted by since first year. "Potter, a pleasure. Are the Kniffles keeping you up, too?" James frowned. "eh, wot? Naw, just enjoying life, an'…an…an thinkin' abou'…life" Xenophilious rolled his eyes, taking a few liberties as his companion was more sodden than the laundry. "Oh? And what part of life were you thinking about, Potter my friend?" the annoyance and intruder on his sanctuary only grinned "th' future part of life, ye know? If I had a kid, and what not. Heey, Nutter, what do you think your future would be, like, where would you live an all that?" Lovegood stilled, his book partly open. He turned completely to face James Potter, one of the many who had made his life more difficult throughout the years. "frankly?" an affirmative nod from Potter.

"When I get out of here, I want a house away from everything, where children can grow and, and live! No coal mines, no cities, just nature, trees, a field, maybe, a brook, growing things, good things, away from industrialization, just away! And the house would be built to look like a shoe, like the one from the muggle stories, and there would be strange and wonderful things, like, like,-" here, he ran out of ideas, and breath, panting, he looked at Potter, whose mouth was open. The dark haired boy chuckled "you been thinking a lot on tha' haven't you?" Xenophilious shook his head, embarrassed. He might be a Ravenclaw, but only Gryffendors spoke their minds like that. "A'right. So that's your view on th' living, what would yer kid's name be? Mine'd be after m' friends or m' da, I think. What about you, Lovegood?" Xeno smiled softly, looking at his hands, the way they clutched his wand and the leatherbound book. "if it were a girl, I'd name her Luna, and if it were a boy I'd name him.." he paused and his smile grew.

"_Lumos_."


End file.
